Stand By Me
by Alice Demer
Summary: I knew that when the time came to fight she would stand by me and be there. I knew that even if it scared my knickers off, she would always fight for what she wanted and for what she knew.              I own nothing!


_James wrapped the invisibility cloak around his figure and made his way out of the head dorm. It was around one AM and he couldn't sleep so he had decided to take a stroll about the grounds. He made his way through the eerily silent halls, enjoying the sensation of for once being completely invisible. Erased from everyone's sight. He pushed on the heavy doors near the entrance hall and they swung open without a sound, allowing him easy access to the grounds. He made his way all around the lake and then veered toward the edge of the forbidden forest. For some reason the forest had always calmed him in a strange way. His feet found their path along the edge of the trees while his mind wandered thoughts of Lily. _

_They were heads together this year and just today she had told him about her sister. He remembered the way she had impulsively worried her lip and how she had used her red hair as a curtain over her face. It had driven him insane. _

_Just then he heard a distant sound. James stopped walking, noticing as he did so how the incessant crunch of leaves stopped as well. He pulled out his wand, holding it close to himself from under the cloak and stood perfectly still. Every hair on the back of his neck rose, every goosebump on his arms seemed alert. He waited a few more moments before the sound came again. A low whimpering, something that resembled a child crying. He crept towards the source of the noise, stepping around a tree and coming upon massive amounts of blood. The child's hair was clumped and tangled, coated thickly in the dark liquid. It glinted silver in the moonlight. He couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl, just that it was a child. It was tiny and curled in as if its insides had collapsed and reshaped to fit this position. Its eyes were half opened, half closed. He could see the very edge of its under eyelid sticking to the round surface of its eyeball. The smell was astounding. Copper. It smelled heavily of copper, sticky and sinisterly sweet. Its mouth parted slowly. In the process of the child's mouth parting, it seemed to transform into Lily. Her red curls were limp from the coating of blood._

"_James…" She murmured. Her emerald eyes were dim, so dark they looked black. He fumbled around, feeling for the edges of the cloak and then pulling it off completely. He sank to the forest floor beside her. The blood reached up to his trousers, immersed itself in the fabric and left his knee covered in sticky warmth. _

"_Lily, Lily I can fix this! I promise…" He murmured, holding his wand over her. She simply stared at him with those dark, dark eyes. He looked over her, roaming for the place that the blood was coming from. The problem was it seemed to be coming from everywhere and yet there was no single wound, nothing for it to gush out of. Yet it just kept coming. Her rosy cheeks and warm red lips had lost their color. They became meaningless white things in the face of the girl he had loved. His insides seemed to well up inside him._

"_James…" She repeated._

"_Come on Lily…" He murmured. Tears stung his eyes and warmed his cheeks._

"_James…!" She repeated with more insistence, "Jaaaames…"_

I jerked awake then. The area around my mouth was wet from drool and my hair was more tangled than usual. The right side of my face ached from falling asleep on the hard surface of my desk. All of this was nothing compared to the dream I had just woken up from.

"Earth to James?" The real Lily (my girlfriend) asked, waving her hand in front of my face and smirking, "Class is over."

"What?" I asked, blinking stupidly. The image of her lifeless face flashed before my eyes and I had to physically shake my head to make it disappear.

"Are you okay?" She looked concerned now.

"Yeah I'm fine. Never better…c'mon, let's go," I stood before she could answer and gathered my books, ink, and quill. Then we left the classroom and ambled down to dinner where we would see the other marauders. I kept shooting glances over to Lily to make sure she wasn't just a figment of my imagination.

"Stop that," She said.

"What?"

"Stop looking at me like that. Merlin James."

"Sorry…" I muttered. She swung around to face me and we stopped in the hallway.

"What's wrong with you?" She looked very concerned now.

"It's nothing. Just a dream," I stated. I made sure my face stayed blank. I didn't want her worrying.

"Care to tell me about your dream?" She asked casually.

"It was nothing! It-"

"James. Come on. I know when you mean that and when you don't," She said in a soft voice. She cupped her palm around my cheek and fixed me with one of her intent stares. I sighed and sat down against the wall. She sat next to me and turned so that her knees were propped against mine.

"I was walking around the forbidden forest and I found this little kid just…lying there in their own blood. I couldn't tell if they were a boy or girl but they kept whimpering. Then the kid…turned into you. I couldn't fix it. I couldn't help you, I hadn't been able to protect you and you just…you were dying Lily," I couldn't meet her eyes. I stared at my shoe lace for a long time until she said.

"You're not losing me anytime soon. Couldn't get rid of me even if you tried Potter!" I looked up and she smiled at me, taking my hand in her little fingers and squeezing it.

"I'm just worried I guess," I muttered. She gave me a strained smile, saying,

"Me too James. But we shouldn't worry about that now. Maybe in a few weeks when we're graduating but…not now."

"I know. It was stupid anyways. I just couldn't get it out of my head," I admitted. She kissed me on the lips softly.

"Well, you know what I can't get out of my head?" She asked impishly. I grinned and kissed her again. This kiss was longer, more desperate. It heated my whole body and left me gasping for breath. Her fingers raked through my hair as she pulled me closer and closer. When we parted, she rested her forehead gently against mine and murmured,

"I love you, James Potter."

"I love you too, Lily," I whispered back. We sat like that for a few moments, just sitting. I watched her eyes the whole time, saw the strength and passion flickering there. I knew that when the time came to fight she would stand by me and be there. I knew that even if it scared my knickers off, she would always fight for what she wanted and for what she knew. But of course, that was why she was Lily and a part of why I loved her so damn much.

**So, I dunno about this one. It's a oneshot obviously…I think it kind of sets the ominous tone they had to stress under and the fact that there was always that looming chance for death or danger. I like how they were able to stay in love and be there for each other even when things got so scary. I guess that's what I was trying to show a fragment of here. Aaaanyways, please, please, pleeeease review!**

**-Alice**


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